[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

The image from my original quote isn't come through so I've reposted it here:

Of course the three-faced character thinks of the twin character as his daughter!

[Androzani84]

You know it’s near the finale when we’re doing stuff the toy company overlords woudlnt have allowed beforehand, like Gentaro equipping 4 modules at once and using Meteor Storm in the Cosmic Sword.

Though my only gripe (and calling it that is a massive stretch) is wondering how the design team and writers got “Harley Quinn as a Toku monster” from the Twin Star.

Let’s just hope Ryusei and Tomoko don’t break up, otherwise that couple’s ticket is worthless.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Though my only gripe (and callin it that is a massive stretch) is wondering how the design team and writers got ?Harley Quinn as a Toku monster? from the Twin Star.

...have you met Yuuki?

[Androzani84]

Touche

[Fish Sandwich]

There are plenty of things I like about these episodes. Most broadly, I think the kinda Twilight Zone atmosphere of everything with Yuuki is a lot of fun, where she has this doppelganger running around and it's goofy but also increasingly unnerving and suspenseful as the story progresses. No surprise the atmosphere is thick with Ishida directing though, which I think accounts for the comedy as much as the horror. (And also for the zoom-out transformation in 44 that now shows the entire universe, because we've come a long way in a year.)

I also like how it highlights the villainy of Gamou in a way that's also highlighting his humanity? The whole plot happens entirely because, in his own twisted way, he longs for the companionship of someone he feels he can truly relate to, and that's a neat angle for the final boss of Fourze. To have a hero who seeks out and embraces people specifically for being different than him, and a villain that fails to see the value in anyone who can't/won't follow the exact same path he does, and then give that conflict some nuance with the underlying notion that neither of them wants to be alone.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I also like how it highlights the villainy of Gamou in a way that's also highlighting his humanity? The whole plot happens entirely because, in his own twisted way, he longs for the companionship of someone he feels he can truly relate to, and that's a neat angle for the final boss of Fourze. To have a hero who seeks out and embraces people specifically for being different than him, and a villain that fails to see the value in anyone who can't/won't follow the exact same path he does, and then give that conflict some nuance with the underlying notion that neither of them wants to be alone.

Yeah, I think there's a significance to this story happening right after Emoto dies. Gamou keeps collecting acolytes, but what he wants is someone on his wavelength -- like Emoto was, or Utahoshi was. The problem is, his meglaomania keeps burning through those same people, because he can't really share his dreams with the people in his life.

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 44 - “CEREMONY OF CELESTIAL FATE”

One part of me admires what this episode’s trying to do. The shift from Maniacal Doppelganger to something more probing and revealing about Yuuki’s buried resentments and desires, that’s a more interesting route to take. Forcing Yuuki to deal with her own propensity for darkness, and come out the other side a more healed and reflective person, that’s a solid concept.

The other part of me thinks that this episode never really addressed any of that, instead giving us a story less about anything from within Yuuki, and more about Gen’s newly-revealed tendency to forget key details of his past with his oldest friend, including defining moments that would normally be burned in someone’s memory, casting a tragic light on how little Yuuki actually meant to Gen.

Guess it seems that the "everyone has a dark side in them" kind of plot, which seems to be Sanjo thing here, this thing will happen like to Gentaro, not only Yuki, of which ep. 43 does have him being chastised by being insensitive to girl's feelings in-universe, so this may be the point, thus Gentaro is also given the propensity for darkness as well in this newly-revealed tendency to forget key details, as he at the end did make a speech about everyone having a dark side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This one pretty much entirely didn’t work for me, and not for the expected distaste for Double Yuuki. While I didn’t love Yuuki’s maddened and distraught performance, the whole episode was geared towards such a constant level of psychological horror that it fit the surroundings enough to be not distracting, if not entertaining or moving in its own right. No, what didn’t work for me was how little agency Yuuki had in any phase of this story, mostly being criticized and betrayed by her friends, and then eventually pep-talked enough by Gen to paralyze and regress Gemini. While Yuuki does at least acknowledge Gemini’s place within her psychology, Yuuki herself never really defeats or confronts Gemini; instead, she just, like, stops feeling bad about herself – and her justifiable anger over Gen completely forgetting the defining moments of their childhood together, this is still actively infuriating as a viewer, Ryuusei 100% nailed Gen’s lack of follow-through back when they first met – until Fourze can detonate her. The key speech in this one is just Gen apologizing to Yuuki for being a bad friend! That isn’t even about Yuuki! It’s about Gen!

Wonder if this is just the difference if the one given light and dark side is a non-Rider/action character, where usually this often happens to action-oriented characters like them, thus Yuki as a non-fighter won't directly defeat or confront Gemini. Feels Gemini just blow her cover quickly when Kengo guesses that the real Yuki is the one Fourze is beating up. It's now the reverse of Meteor borrowing Fourze's Switches in the beginning, where here, it's Cosmic States using Meteor Storm switch, of which, as like what Meteor does, it can absorb energy from the surroundings, nullifying Supernova. The voice from the space stuff does reveal Gamou's true goal, which is to meet the Presenters, and after Gemini's defeat, he feels that he's the only one adequate enough to represent humanity.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Wonder if this is just the difference if the one given light and dark side is a non-Rider/action character, where usually this often happens to action-oriented characters like them, thus Yuki as a non-fighter won't directly defeat or confront Gemini.

I mean, there's ways of defeating monsters that are more about changing and growing, to minimize their power over a character, and I felt like Yuuki's version of that didn't really amount to much. She acknowledges that Gemini represents a part of her, but we never really see her grapple with what that means -- either in the earlier parts of the episode, or in the aftermath of Gemini's defeat. The whole thing ends up being about Gen's apology, and that's sort of not doing too much with the premise.